


Beyond the Script

by AvecPardon



Series: Corruption of Minecraftia [5]
Category: Dream Team - Fandom
Genre: Avatars are separate from Players, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Torture, Realistic Minecraft, but still using game mechanics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-26 04:46:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30100497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvecPardon/pseuds/AvecPardon
Summary: self-indulgent comfort fic after the events of Quackity's recent lore stream titled 'Visiting Dream'When the lore stream ends and the Players log out, Quackity is left to cope with the fact that a certain scene brought up traumas in Dream that the speedrunner had tried to gloss over in favor of making sure the show went on.Just a very short after-scene comfort thing, idk. Sharing it in case of other c!Dream sympathizer/enjoyers looking for something similar.
Series: Corruption of Minecraftia [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2174448
Comments: 2
Kudos: 38





	Beyond the Script

**Author's Note:**

> cw: implied past torture/assault
> 
> set in DSMP territory in future timeline of Corruption of Minecraftia

_[Dream has left the game.]_  
_[Quackity has left the game.]_

Light returned to Quackity's eyes as he felt control of his body return to him, and not for the first time was he glad his Player was a variety streamer, allowing him longer stretches of time to be independent. His hand flew up to tap at his ear and get back in contact with Awesamdude.

"Awesam! You've got teleport permissions thanks to Exdee wanting to avoid shit like what happened to the prison that one time, right? TP me back to you and then TP Dream out of that fucking box; something went wrong!"

 _"What? How do you know?"_ the Creeper King returned in confusion.

"Didn't you feel it from Sam?! When his name was screamed during that scene in the prison?" Quackity yelled, running down the wooden path on his way back to Pandora's Vault. "Clay's getting better at acting, but that scream of terror? That was pure Dream bleeding into him! He's caught in the roleplay; get him out of there!"

_"I.. I can't do that! We don't know how bad he's caught in it; what if he gets worse outside? At least in the cell, he's contained!"_

The Mexican Avatar bit out a curse under his breath. "Then just teleport me back in there! I need to check on him! Or you go in there and see!" The world flickered, and the beautiful sunset sky and colorful town was swept away to be replaced by the lava lit walls of obsidian and iron. He skidded to a stop, shaking off the disorientation of teleporting on the move before looking to the prison warden still typing on his floating keyboard. "What the fuck, dude?! Warn me!" Quackity bit out irritably, flicking a hand to his skin select screen and tapping his usual blue hoodie and beanie combination to replace the casino outfit with its cosmetic scar.

"Sorry," Awesamdude replied offhandedly. "How do we do this? Bring him out here where the two of us can handle him together, or keep him contained in the cell and go in one at a time, hope he doesn't freak out more?" His fingers hovered over the keys, waiting.

"Bring him out here," Quackity told him firmly, taking a few steps back and opening his arms. "I'll grab on and hold him, you talk him back to his senses."

Awesamdude nodded and cleared the screen, typing the teleport commands in and confirming them. Dream appeared between them as free-flowing data flickered away from him and back into invisibility. Quackity quickly wrapped his arms around the smaller Avatar to hold him in place. "It's me, it's me! It's Quackity!" he cried as Dream began thrashing wildly in place, screaming in a mix of panic and rage.

"Get the fuck **off** me! I'm **not** your goddamn _property_! Get your hands off me or I'll fucking **kill** you all the first chance I get!" the blonde yelled, kicking out at Awesamdude and then swinging his legs back to try jamming his heels into Quackity's sides.

"Wh-what the hell?" Awesamdude breathed out in faint horror, "What's he talking about?"

"You fucking think you can get _anything_ out of me with torture?! Herobrine couldn't break me and He put His all into fucking _trying_!" Dream laughed, a twisted and warped tone that made it sound so much harsher and guttural. "You're not getting my body; nobody will **ever** fucking lay hands on **me** against my will again!"

"Okay, this shit isn't the roleplay talking," Quackity muttered through gritted teeth, already sore from all the hits he was taking from the kicks but still holding on to the blonde and keeping him off the floor. "Goddamnit, this is a flashback scrambling everything up! Did we trigger his PTSD? Wasn't his therapy supposed to be helping with this?!"

"It's not an instant fix for trauma!" Awesamdude pointed out in exasperation. "This whole arc is getting dangerous for his mindset; we should have had Exdee nickname himself and take Dream's place for the rest of the season!"

Quackity agreed silently, busy with holding on as best he could without causing any more harm to the struggling Avatar. There was only the waiting now, with Awesamdude standing as far back from them as possible and holding a splash potion of regeneration in his hand and Dream slowly thrashing less and less as he tired himself out.

It felt like hours passed by the time Dream just sank in Quackity's arms, the two of them just about collapsing together onto the obsidian floor and clinging to one another for support and comfort. The blonde shuddered, face hidden by his mask but the smooth white circle wasn't enough to hide the trails of tears running down from behind it. Awesamdude approached carefully, knelt down and raised a hand to him. Dream recoiled from it with a fearful whimper, burying himself closer into Quackity's embrace even as he quickly turned the whimper into a harsh growl, defensive and low.

Quackity shook his head at the Creeper King's actions, scowling just a little in reprimand. "Don't, don't touch; he's gonna be like this a while but at least he's trusting me," he said quietly. "Get Sapnap and George; Dream will probably take to them better."

A sigh of resignation, and Awesamdude began rising to his feet again, slowing his movements when his initial motion made Dream growl again in warning. Once he was safely far from the two Avatars huddled together, he swiped open his chat screen and started typing urgently.

In the meanwhile, Quackity breathed deeply, resting his cheek against Dream's head and letting his breath ruffle strands of dirty blonde hair. The staccato beats of Dream's heart were starting to calm down from where he could feel it under one hand, aided by the rhythm of Quackity's breathing in a purposefully slow pace. Slower and slower, until the beats were steady without feeling like his heart was racing to escape him.

"'m sorry," Dream mumbled after a while, tension bleeding out of his body until Quackity was putting in more effort to keep him upright than before. "'m sorry, should've said.. should've spoken up."

"Nah, man, none of that," Quackity murmured back, dark eyes glancing down at the pallid skin that wasn't fully hidden by the face mask, at the trembling of Dream's hands, the cold and clammy feeling of his fingers tangled with Quackity's own, as if holding on to what was real to stay out of the moments of genuine torture he had survived playing out in his memories. "Shit went too far despite our efforts and you got hurt, and you have a right to feel upset about it. You thought you had a handle on it, and y'know? I'm still proud of you for feeling like that at the start and I'm proud of you for learning that there's still limits and where they are, and nobody's gonna judge you for how all this turned out." He lightly massaged the fingers tangled with his, then carefully moved to clasp both of his hands around one of Dream's, rubbing gentle circles to work out tension from tendons and ligaments, lightly pressing into the padding around the base of his thumb and into his palm. "You should be proud of yourself for not bringing any harm to yourself either. That's good, that's good, you didn't hurt yourself at all. No lava swimming for you."

Sapnap and George appeared in the room, teleported in by Awesamdude after hearing what happened, and Dream growled warningly. They stayed a short distance back, hands raised to keep them in view and worried expressions on their faces. "Dream, would it be alright now for Exdee to take over for these next few parts?" Quackity asked quietly, setting Dream's hand down and picking up his other to repeat the light massage. It seemed to help coax him out of wherever his mind took him and trapped him, looping memories that Quackity wouldn't wish on his enemies, let alone a good friend.

He didn't have to wait long before the other Avatar sighed and nodded slowly. "I thought.. thought I could just.. power through.. pretend torture's not that bad, the fake ones, just acting.. thought it'd be fine.. therapy.. exposure therapy, y'know?" Dream mumbled brokenly, words tumbling out in the same order his thoughts probably were forming.

"Not here, Dream, this isn't the place for that," Sapnap told him softly, shoulders dropping in relief that he was talking, nudging at George to move closer. The brunet cautiously approached, hands still in sight, and sat down by Quackity.

"Let's get you home. We'll send a message to your therapist and you can talk with them," George said with a small smile. "You and me, we'll go see what Sky and the others have been up to, let Exdee pull his weight in the DreamSMP for a while. How about it?" He held out a hand, palm up and inviting, waiting patiently until Dream reached back and gently gripped it, fingertips pressing subtly over his wrist. Quackity carefully untangled himself from the smaller Avatar, sitting back with a grin as the two looked at each other.

"Okay," Dream agreed quietly before grinning slowly, a flicker of his usual confidence reappearing in the curve of his mouth. "You missin' that DNF content, huh?" George rolled his eyes in familiar exasperation and Quackity finally let himself relax at hearing Dream's responding laughter.

The script would likely continue once discussions were had with his own Player and Clay to swap DreamXD in via nickname, but beyond that? Quackity was simply content with knowing he was able to help a friend escape the prison of his mind.

End


End file.
